


Soft A-Starboard

by defenestrator



Category: Free!
Genre: AU, M/M, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 10:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3171437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defenestrator/pseuds/defenestrator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sailing AU. Haru and Rin take a moment out of globetrotting to stargaze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soft A-Starboard

**Author's Note:**

> For a tumblr prompt from a friend. Please note that this was written pre-Eternal Summer! Enjoy. :)

"Ow," Rin said when Haru shifted, "that was my ear, you dumbass."

It was the third such complaint since they’d taken in the sails and unfolded themselves under the sky, so Haru didn’t dignify it with a reply. Some scuffling was inevitable with only the stars for illumination, the cabin obscured by the mast, and Rin’s knees and elbows gathered in a tangle against him.

He didn’t quite shiver when he felt Rin set teeth to his knuckles, light with menace; they were both bundled up against the sea wind and darkness made Rin bolder.

When Rin spoke again, he did so against Haru’s skin, without bothering to raise his voice. This time Haru did shiver. “You know, if we turned off all the lights, we’d be a deserted island.”

"Don’t compare my boat to a deserted island."

"Try me." He felt Rin smile. It felt like a slow kiss. "Hundreds of leagues from shore. Building a raft. Navigating by the stars. Limited food, keeping warm, maybe hunting on real deserted islands…"

"Cannibals," Haru deadpanned, and got another, firmer bite for his trouble. His other hand was free, though, and he made good use of it, and smiled to himself when Rin squawked at the cold fingers underneath his sweater.

"You suck. You suck on so many levels. I’m trying to set the mood and you’re—"

"And you’re trying to eat me," Haru interrupted, just to feel Rin’s blush sweep by under his hands. It was the most interesting sensation. "You navigate through deserted islands all the time, Rin."

"Not always by the stars, though." Rin was quiet for a moment. Haru pictured him under unfamiliar stars, putting away his instruments and climbing the prow, stretching his hands out to the horizon. The Rin in his mind was very small, and getting smaller with the turn of the earth, a gangly shadow of the years they’d spent apart. He tightened his hands, and Rin kissed his knuckles. "I want to show you the southern constellations, Haru. There’s so much you’re missing out on. Come with me this time."

"You are on my boat," Haru pointed out, voice the driest thing aboard, and Rin headbutted him a little. He might have deserved it. "She’s not equipped to go around the world."

"And what am I, chopped liver? You could at least work on your house sometimes."

"You sound like Makoto."

"Makoto was talking about your old house," Rin pointed out, almost lazily, nestling into the worn edges of their familiar bickering. "And you refused to move to mine."

"A competition craft is not a house."

"So here I am," Rin continued as blithely as though Haru hadn’t spoken, but then he paused — just a split-second, but enough — and Haru felt light fingers on his wrist, holding him there. "She’s a beauty, Haru. I’ll be good to her. Let me work on her?"

"You’re retired," Haru chose to answer a completely unrelated question, because Rin’s fingers were distracting, quick and gentle like small fish before Haru captured them and laced them in his own to stop them. "And stay still."

Rin made no move to escape. “Haru.” He said the name like a sigh, the way he would sometimes when they came to an impasse — they had a lot of those — but softly, in a way that Haru didn’t recognize.

"Rin."

It startled him when Rin sat up, and turned around, blotting out the starlight. There was the dark, and the wind, and the wine-dark flash of Rin’s eyes that he couldn’t mistake for anything else in the sky. They weren’t touching anymore at all, Rin’s warmth just above him like impending storm. Haru leaned into him, wanting to reach out but without the space to do so.

"Come with me, Haru." Rin was still speaking in that low, soft voice, but there was something more familiar in it now. Teeth: he was smiling. "I’ll show you everything. Even the stuff I didn’t get to see. No championship course. We’ll get lost on purpose. We’ve got all the time in the world."

Haru wanted to kiss him. Sometimes touching Rin seemed impossible. “Someone’s going to report us lost at sea. It’ll be annoying.”

"It’s like you don’t even know what radios are," Rin was laughing now, the spell broken; Haru wound his arms around him and kissed him immediately, pulling him back down and not letting him up until they were both breathless. "Hey."

He got no reply except the minute tightening of Haru’s arms, holding on through the rocking of the boat. The world rocked around them on the water and Haru held on.

"Haru?"

"I’ll think about it." The answering silence was so blankly surprised that Haru almost laughed. He tucked Rin closer and smiled to himself, to the stars trickling slowly by. There was all the time in the world to love extraordinarily, to prove it and to show it off and to let Rin wear it the way he wanted to. He did most of the work, anyway.

Tonight, Haru kept his love ordinary. He had let medals and fame pass to other hands, captured those hands on paper and in his own, and never regretted a thing. The things that were ordinary were the things that had always been a part of him, and he never had a chance of letting them go.


End file.
